Roostertail Talk

Episode 158: Brad Luce, Part 2

• David Newton • Season 7 • Episode 22

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The voice behind the rooster tails opens up about life in the broadcast booth. In this candid conversation, veteran hydroplane racing broadcaster Brad Luce reveals many things that keep him going to announce the races for H1 Unlimited. Brad has an immense commitment to keep viewers informed, engaged, and part of the racing family that spans generations. Whether you're a devoted hydroplane enthusiast or curious newcomer, Brad's stories capture the passion that powers this spectacular sport. This is part 2 of a 3 part interview. 

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Speaker 1:

Ruchetel Talk, the podcast dedicated to everything about the sport that we all love. Hi, it's your plane, reece. I am your host, david Newton, and it's time once again. So sit back, relax and welcome. Rooster Tail Talk L-TALK. Welcome back, race fans.

Speaker 1:

It's August 19th 2025, and this is episode 158, part two of my discussion with Brad Luce. Hopefully, you had a chance to listen to part one last week of my conversation with Brad, as we went more about the fan aspect of the sport and his background in boat racing and what it's meant to him to be a fan of the sport. And today we're going to well, I guess we're still talking about hydroplane racing and he's going to talk more about his time as a broadcaster and some things behind-the-scenes, things that you may or may not know of him, with broadcasting as well as working alongside of H1 Unlimited. So, with that said, let's get back in to part two of my interview of Brad Luce. Well, one thing that stands out for me I mean, you're broadcasting day after day at the races. It's multiple-day races, and when it's 100 degrees out by the end of the day, I'm just exhausted, right, like, how do you keep up the energy? What's your routine? Because, at the end of the day, you still have life in your voice. How is that possible?

Speaker 2:

I think it's just pure adrenaline, because here we are the day after the three days here on the Columbia River and I'm exhausted. I hit the bed last night late and I was out. I was tired after Friday, real tired after Saturday and so forth, but when I went to bed I was tired and I try and get my sleep. I've got to get more sleep now than I used to, but each of those two mornings I woke up long before the alarm and I was just sitting there. I'm ready, let's go, come on. I can't leave early because I got to pick up somebody at their house and take them with me. So then on Saturday morning I got up. Literally I was just standing in the kitchen having a couple cups of coffee just waiting so I could go. So the adrenaline's really kicking in Now. Last night I just oof it's over there, and then we kick it right back up again. I'm going over Wednesday and we'll start setting up down on Thursday and we do it again. These are always hectic weeks.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, it's fun to have them back to back like that, but it is hectic, that's for sure.

Speaker 2:

And that's kind of what I was speaking to earlier. As long as I can still do it physically, obviously I'm not a young buck anymore, but I feel good, I'm still mobile and can get around and I'm having fun. I'm having fun. The best part about this whole thing, david, is we've been having this conversation on the air like four times this year. We had it again yesterday. It's all about the people. The best part about this whole ride has been the people we have met. Whether we're going to Madison, guntersville and I say we because my wife goes with me We've got friends in all these towns that we've made over the years, and not just the race teams but people within the community, and you share Christmas cards with them and you share information about your families and you've gotten to know their kids and vice versa. Far and away, that is the best part of this whole thing. Oh, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1:

Well, everyone I talk to about the sport, they always mention friendship and family. That's it. That's what it's about, right, and I had so much fun over the weekend just talking to people in the pits, talking to people on the shorelines and meeting people through this podcast. That's so much fun to me as well.

Speaker 2:

It is. That's the highlight of it. And I can tell a fun story I think I've told you this before about your father. Oh yeah, and when I got married he and I were working together on various projects. Well, he was really working on them. I was getting in the way because I'm not that good with my hands, but he and I were involved in a restoration project and that's how I got to know him and that was the 67 Budweiser project, and got to know him real well and I had met my future wife and we're eventually gonna get married. And so he said what could I do for you? I want to do a little something. And he made a tiny little Hawaii Kai, oh, a little Hawaii Kai model, just a little thing. And in our wedding pictures that is right on the top of the wedding cake and I still have that.

Speaker 2:

Good, and in my house I people know I have something in my house called the gold cup lounge. Um, not quite like it was in my old house, but I have a. The whole downstairs of my house is dedicated to boat racing, with framed photos all over the wall and all the gold cup winners and memorabilia and all that. That little, that little hawaii guy always sits there. That's special to my wife and me from your dad, so that that's kind of cool. And literally here's my wife and I, arm and arm, ready to cut the cake.

Speaker 1:

Don't cut the hawaii kai, because it's right there on the top. I love to hear that. I love it it's pretty cool.

Speaker 2:

He was, uh, your dad, something special. I don't have to tell you that. Well, thank you, and hydroplane racing owes still to this day, a lot to that man. Yeah, and he was a great guy. Yeah, man, he was good with his hands.

Speaker 1:

He was, so are you.

Speaker 2:

I mean your radio-controlled stuff. That stuff's amazing, yeah, amazing, yeah, thank you, yeah, yeah, I'm keeping that going. I'm racing this year with my son now and he's he's starting to get into it.

Speaker 1:

He's 10 and yeah, my dad, family and friends here we go.

Speaker 2:

Second and third generation.

Speaker 1:

Keep it going. Here we go. Yeah, very good, I just wish he was still around to enjoy it with us. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he had. He had a passion he did, or obsession, I don't know which one you want to say. Yeah, speaking about your wedding, I remember there was a story about my dad. One of the times that Ken got married, ken Muscatel, he had a. One of the times he had a I can't remember what model it was, but he brought a model, rc model to the wedding and they put it it inside this, like there was like this shrimp cocktail area with ice and stuff and it was like the centerpiece for it.

Speaker 1:

And after the wedding, my dad took the boat home and got ready for the race. He opened it up and there was like all these shrimp tails stuck in the boat that he had to get out. Memories of the wedding, yes, very good. All right, let's get back to the H1 circuit. Yeah, because you've gotten to travel to many places over the years. H1's traveled to some great places and they still do. But do you have to have a favorite race site and a challenging race site, thinking back both ends of the sword? But what's your favorite race site and a challenging race site, thinking about both ends of the sword? But what's your favorite race site to broadcast at and what's the most challenging one to broadcast?

Speaker 2:

Oh gosh, I guess maybe my favorite site. That's a good question. It's also a difficult question. I'm leaning toward the Tri-Cities. Are you going to be biased?

Speaker 1:

Are you going to obsess over people? Terribly biased.

Speaker 2:

Terribly biased.

Speaker 2:

But I'm leaning toward the Tri-Cities because that's where it all started. Yeah, I still look across the river at the exit to Turn 1 because that's where it started. That's where I did my first two ever radio broadcasts. Do I want to go back over there? No, but I look over there and I go. I know there's somebody over there with KONA and I know exactly what they're doing. I mean, I was set up with a folding chair in the sun, nothing over my head and a card table and somebody said this mic is hot if you push that button up. That was pretty much the instruction, but that kind of started it all. And so I guess I have a soft spot for the Tri-Cities. And now I'm on start-finish. Actually, yesterday was the first race I've ever seen on start-finish in the Tri-Cities. I've always been standing atop the pit tower. I had been on the shoreline many, many, many, many years early, but anyway. So that was kind of fun.

Speaker 2:

I love Madison, indiana, just because of the logistics of it all. They've got the new. I don't know when the last time was. You were in Madison, but they have the new overlook, overlooking the river. So you've got a great view, right on start-finish line, of the whole river and the Milton-Madison Bridge and all that. But the other piece to that puzzle is pit areas right there. It's right at your feet. So if you need to go down and grab a driver, if you need to go down and get an interview, if you really want to know what happened to that boat, nobody asked the question about why did they break the propeller or how much damage is on you know, run down there and take a look. Yeah-cities kind of need a golf cart. Seattle same problem.

Speaker 2:

I'm partial to Seattle just because that was it. That's where it all started for me and I will never forget the first time when I was first broadcasting in Seattle, I was in the pit area. I was doing I think I mentioned for Steve Montgomery and John Lynch and I were doing that. But the first time I called a race on the start finish line in Seattle, I remember walking out there and going. I'm really going to do this.

Speaker 2:

Yes, it's a different start finish line tower. It's not the old barge that I was fortunate enough as a very young child to be able to go out on because of a family friend who was able to get us credentials. I had no idea how lucky I was, but I got to go out on that. So Seattle's very special because that's where it all started and I just remember I was kind of overcome with it at all at first and I walked out and just looked over and went, wow, wow, I'm really here and they're going to give me a mic and I'm going to call this race, and that's. That's really special to me. And I'm really not answering your question because I'm telling you what I like about each one.

Speaker 2:

But, and then Detroit, detroit is amazing. I really, really, really hope we get back to Detroit. I really, really, really hope we get back to Detroit. I was in sales my whole career, yeah, and so I'm an eternal optimist. I am sure we will. I only hope that I can stick around and keep broadcasting when we go back to Detroit, because I want to go back one more time At least. I want to go back.

Speaker 1:

Well, I've never been there.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my goodness, you have got to go back one more time At least I want to go back. Well, I've never been there. Oh my goodness.

Speaker 1:

You have got to get back there. So whenever it's on the schedule like it was a couple years ago, maybe it was going to happen it didn't end up happening, but I was saving up. I was going to be there. So, whenever the next race is there, I'm going to be there.

Speaker 2:

You definitely need to be there. And if I'm there, then you need to come look me up and I will be on top of the pit tower. And I'm just telling you, you haven't lived until you've stood atop that pit tower and had them go three wide through the rooster tail. It's just put your heart in your throat. You've watched hundreds of boat races but you haven't seen anything yet until you see it in person. But you haven't seen anything yet until you see it in person. And when you get that first three wide through the rooster tail at speed and they all come out clean, and you say I just saw it, but I don't know how they did that. It's unbelievable. And the fans back there are great. And it's fun being from Seattle and going back there, because I'd always stir the pot a little bit, I'd bring up the 55 gold cup that they stole from us. They cheated and all that. Oh, and these Detroit fans are coming up to me. Oh, what are you talking about? And they are outstanding fans. They know their boat racing so very well and they're really fun to banter with.

Speaker 2:

And then you got the big grandstand and golly, we would go there. When I first went there, joe Tate, andrew's grandpa. He came up to me and he had a convertible and the plan was that I was to call the race on the pit tower. Jeff Aylor was at start finish. When the heat was over, I'd run down the stairs, go out in front of the tower, which you're right in the pit area, go down to the dock, grab the winning driver. We'd walk over, we'd put him in the back seat of Joe Tate's convertible and I would sit on the back of the car with him and I'd do the interview as they paraded him in front of the grandstand.

Speaker 2:

It was awesome, it was absolutely awesome. And so one time I got caught down there in the grandstand and the boats were already coming out for the next tee. So I just I I don't know just who I am, I guess I just I saw a hole in the seating up the grandstand, so I just took the hot mic and I just walked up there and there was a bunch of guys up there and I just went in and sat with them and I just told him. I said be cool, you know, we are live here, this is a family event and they said yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And so as the boats were coming out and warming up and the milling, I'm interviewing these guys how long have you guys been coming here and what's your tradition? And I called the race right in front of them. It was so much fun. That's great and I do believe that's a big part of what. At least it's what I do. I'm going to have fun with it and I think talking to fans like that's fun. It is, it's fun, and we honestly, we don't do enough of it.

Speaker 2:

We got stuck in Madison this year. We couldn't even put boats in the pit area on Friday, let alone run in the river, because it was up and the river level was fine to run on. There wasn't enough room in the pit area because it all slopes up, so when the water gets higher, every time the water comes up a foot, you're losing five feet of pit area and there just wasn't enough room. But it was dropping and dropping rapidly and so at the last we were talking honestly about if we could have had a good enough signal. Brent Hall and I were going to take two hot microphones and two cameras and we were just going to go walk down Vaughn Drive and we had already walked down Vaughn. All the teams were there, the boats were there, but it wasn't just them, it was vendors, it was fans. And I found a guy and his wife. They were sitting on this swing from a tree that was right on the edge of the cliff, overlooking the river. They had a perfect view of the river. I'm going how did you get this spot? And I said these are the people we need to come talk to, exactly, and we were going to do it, but we couldn't get enough. We couldn't get a strong enough signal. So that's when. I don't know if you saw it, but on Friday we just started a parade of interviews and actually it was well-received.

Speaker 2:

Our new PR person, janique, our French-Canadian friend from HRL, she said if we can bring people up here, will you do the interviews? And I said, sure, I'll do anything. Let's get something out there for the fans. They want to know what's going on here. And honestly, david, I had said I'm willing to go down and stand in the river. I don't care, put a close-up on me and I'll just start talking and then just pull the camera back and I'll be standing at my knees and going this is our pit area. I think we can do a better job communicating. And I said, if that's what it takes, I don't care, I'll go stand on the river and we'll just show them. This is why we're not running boats today.

Speaker 2:

But Janique was funny she. I said who are we going to talk to? Who are you going to have me interview? She goes I don't know, it depends on who I can find and I would talk. It was like coming out from behind the curtain. I don't know who she was bringing next. Oh, I know you. Okay, come on over, sit down. We had a lot of fun. When I went home, drove up to the hotel that night, I was exhausted. We were on for three straight hours just short of that. And when I went up the hill I was exhausted. I went man, I don't know that I've worked that hard in a long time, certainly at a boat race. And then I thought but that was some of the most fun I'd ever had. We were just gabbing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there were some great interviews that day. It was fun.

Speaker 2:

And we had race officials. I got the mayor, but I got him later on on the weekend Mark Tate came on. And it was great. Janique would just all of a sudden she'd come around the corner of the curtain and she'd kind of just like presenting here it is and out comes Mark Tate, I go, all right, this will be fun. And you just start thinking what are we going to talk about? It was a good time.

Speaker 1:

Maybe this should be a new bit for you when there's downtime, not like whose line it is anyway is anyway, but like who is the guest today? Yeah, drop a curtain, drop a curtain.

Speaker 2:

here it is yeah, yeah, and you know to your point. You said there were some good interviews that day. We got really good reviews, yeah, and it came up at a board meeting afterwards and people we were discussing it on the board and there were some people on the live stream side that said that was really good. We need to maybe think about doing that at every event. And I said whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a minute. First of all, you got to remember that was plan B. That was Friday. Plan A was to run the boats and I don't think we want to change that. We still want to run the boats and I don't think we want to change that. We still want to run the boats. So that was plan B. Based on that, I said but the other piece is that worked really well with the drivers and whoever they found the crew chiefs and Kyle Bipes and everybody that we were grabbing I said it worked really well doing that. I don't think we want to go to that well, again, we did that one.

Speaker 2:

If we end up having to do something like that, we need different people. Maybe we get fans, maybe what we are talking about, the surprise gasp or something. Let's mix it up. Yeah, the fans, they just want to see what's going on and and and people listening to this. If I'm wrong, tell me, but I think they just want to know.

Speaker 2:

We've had a couple instances this year where we have said we were going to go on at a certain time with the live stream and we haven't gone on at that time for a variety of reasons and there's been a big push now to what? And I said this when we went to Madison. I said I don't care. But if we say we're going to go on at nine o'clock, there are people our good fans are going to be out there and they're going to have a, they're going to go. Okay, they're on East coast time. That's six o'clock out here in the West coast and they're sitting at their computer with a cup of coffee and they're ready to see what's going on in madison. They want to see testing, showing the boats.

Speaker 2:

And I they said, well, we can't really commit. And I go, yes, we can't. And I said, honest to god, if, if we have the monsoons coming in, give me a cameraman and a live mic, I'll go sit in the front seat of my rental car and we could just show them how hard it's raining. They just want to know what's going on. Tell them. My son said just liken it to being on an airplane and you go out the tarmac and you sit out there for 45 minutes and they never come over the pa and tell you what's going on and why you're hung out and everybody gets frustrated.

Speaker 1:

That's your fan yeah, those are the times where I've been waiting to watch and there's like a thousand people waiting or whatever. Yeah, it's like okay, let's get on.

Speaker 2:

Here we go and nick will come down to me. Nick kish, he will come down, he'll go. Brad, we got a thousand people sitting online. I said let's go. Let's go. What do you want to talk to? I don't care. I don't care. I'll just walk around the tower and say this is our scores and timers. Say hi to Mary and Sharky.

Speaker 1:

Right right.

Speaker 2:

Anything? Yeah, we just. And Jared Meyer, one of our cameramen, he has a great line, and so I guess maybe what I'm trying to say with this and we're off on this tangent, but I think what I'm trying to say is fans, we hear you, we hear you, and I tell everybody I am just a fan. That's the only reason I do this, and if anybody hasn't figured that out yet, I do it because I'm a fan. I get a pit pass and I get to park really close. Yeah, we work, but I'm a fan.

Speaker 2:

And Jared Meyer, he had a great comment. He said there's 365 days in a year. We have five races, three days at each race. We have our boats on the water 15 days a year. We got to cover every moment those boats are running. How do you argue with that? You're a boat race fan, so am I, and I've heard people say should we really cover testing? Yes, yes, we should. And if people don't want to watch testing, don't watch it, but there's people out there that do. And if they just want to tune in and if we just give them some lap speeds and tell them that J Michael Kelly's won four times in a row in Seattle, with four different boat numbers with four different boat numbers I've thought about, could we have a question and answer period?

Speaker 2:

Could we have people text in questions and maybe get John Walters up with me. If you've got a technical question and if a little bit of downtime, how could we fill it? That's what we were talking about and I said could we do a segment like that and the producer could just come on and say David from Seattle wants to know blah, blah, blah about the propeller and how do you figure out which propeller goes with which gearbox or whatever? John, I'm going to let you take that one. I'd like John Walters. I thought we could do something like that and we may get there. I don't know if you've noticed, we have a pick the prop segment. This year.

Speaker 2:

That's Nick Kish's baby. I think after yesterday I might be leading.

Speaker 1:

I might be leading.

Speaker 2:

I had bell walk. I had bell walk for this race. I picked up a four. I think I was second place to the fans. I think I was trailing the fans by 300 points or something, but I don't know who the fans had. I don't remember. But it's just a little segment, it's something to talk about. So, fans, we're trying, we hear you, we're trying, we hear you, we're trying.

Speaker 1:

Well, I mean you definitely each one has stepped up this offseason. They've purchased a trailer with some great gear and went out and got Tanner Faust, so it's been a lot of work on the offseason to do this. So have you seen a rise in the quality with that?

Speaker 2:

In some areas. We've had some challenges. We've had some big challenges and our fans certainly are aware of that. I think we took some big strides this past weekend. We did some things much, much better. We still struggle with a few aspects of it. Bandwidth is a big issue for us, but I think we're starting to get a handle on that and I know everybody's complaints it freezes and the lips and so forth aren't synced up with the sound. We've had some issues there. But, to your point, there's been a huge investment, monetary investment, in this.

Speaker 2:

We went out and I shouldn't say we, an individual went out, an individual from Strong Racing went out and did some work and they found a production trailer. It was in Kansas City and it was at a Kansas City public television station and there still are some monikers on the inside of it that say KCPT on the inside of it and they had outgrown it and they had purchased a new trailer and so they wanted to sell this one and they had gutted it. They took everything out of it. There was some sound equipment, some audio equipment in it, but it was dated.

Speaker 2:

But the important part was the cabinetry that was in it, but it was dated, but the important part was the cabinetry that was in it, the way it was laid out, with three separate rooms, and the racks that were in it. The cabinetry and the racks that were in it were. They were priceless. You had to pay tens of thousands of dollars to have to put those racks in there. And because it was used for a television station, it was laid out with that in mind and they wanted it for a song and literally they wanted it for a song.

Speaker 2:

They'd given it to a broker and they just wanted to dump the thing. So they wanted it for a song and we went in and offered half a song and they jumped at it. So Corey Peabody and Strong Racing meddler just jumped on an airplane in the middle of winter, january or whatever, went out to Kansas City and the meddler just got underneath it and was looking at all the framing underneath it, make sure it's structurally sound. And they flew him back home and they had it all set up. Corey peabody hitched it up and drove it back and drove it out here to, uh, daryl strong's place out in richland, out at the airport, and put it out there. And we first saw it. This thing was a monster. I mean, it's in this big warehouse over here at the airport and it's a monster. Looks much smaller when we get it at the race site, but it's a big deal. It's a. It's a big, big trailer. And then we started decking it out with equipment and that was a lot of brand new equipment. It was a lot of equipment that was newly purchased last year by the former live stream team, the little group of eight of us who did this a year ago and that's a whole nother story for another day, but there was a lot of equipment that was purchased there and we incorporated a lot of that into the trailer this year. But, yeah, it's been a big investment in a lot of people. We've tripled the number of people that work on the live stream.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and we still have a ways to go. We're not where we should be. Again, I guess I'm just going to ask fans we hear you, we do hear you, trust me. I sit in my own Gold Cup lounge and pull up YouTube videos and I watch them too. I watch them. It's just after the fact I don't see them live, and so we see the issues and we're aware of them and we'll get there. There's a lot of people working really, really hard to make this sport better. Yeah, and it's not going to happen overnight. It took us, we've fallen off over the years and but I honestly again the optimistic sales guy here I think we're in a good place right now. I think we are, and stick with us, hang with us. Our fans are golden. We know that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, that's one thing. The average fan doesn't quite see all the work that's done behind the scenes throughout the offseason. Right, right, I always love to hear what's going on, what's happening, and I'm hoping that at least with that, you know that the purchasing of the new equipment and all that you can build on for next year and continue to grow and expand and make it a better product. Right.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and I'll tell you what happened at the end of last year and what the plan is. I'm sure what happened at the end of last year and what the plan is. I'm sure, even though I'm not directly involved in that type of decision-making. But a year ago I was, Nick Kish and I were kind of running the live stream last year, and we decided that we got back from San Diego. We were all going to take a few weeks off the seven or eight of us that did this and then we had a meeting that did this, and then we had a meeting. We all got together on a Discord call and, all right, I said look, we've just had an amazing summer. We did a tremendous job with our live stream and right now we've got a lot of credibility with HydroTown and with H1 Unlimited. I said so.

Speaker 2:

The purpose of the call was to how do we make it better? And how do we make it better? We need to say, well, we need this and we have to define exactly what that's going to do and how much is it going to cost. Now, understand, we're not going to get everything we asked for, but right now we got a lot of credibility. Let's strike while the iron's hot, and this was last October. So we did that and we came up with this list of maybe 10 things how we can make the broadcast better, how we could help our bandwidth at the race site, yada, yada. And then I said, okay, now we're not done yet. Nick and I talked to everybody and we prioritized the list. And then Nick and I got on a call with Daryl Strong and Mike Dunslow and Nick and myself, and we made this presentation and we told them why and this is how much it's going to cost and this is what it's going to get you.

Speaker 2:

And things changed after that. But a lot of that thinking was still incorporated into the next moves. And, next thing, we know we got this production trailer and we're decking the thing out and we're we're trying to make things better. Have we taken a step back to take a step forward? I think so, and I think we recognize that certainly our fans do. Um, but we're going to get there, yeah, and there's just been so much work and you talk about hearing what's going on during the off season. These are some of the things that went on behind the scenes. There's a lot of conversation that goes on. We don't just leave San Diego and say see you later and go to the first race the next season. Oh, maybe we should have done that. No, there's a lot of people doing a lot of work.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I know there is and I love to hear it, but the average fan, like I said, probably doesn't know all that right. So it's great to hear about all that work, but, uh, one thing that's been impressive this year is tanner's presence on air, his knowledge of other motorsports and and what he brings to the table as an announcer. How did this come about to get Tanner Faust on board?

Speaker 2:

Well, we hired a new producer to come in and take over the show. So we did that. His name is Corey Tibblis, a company called Two Plank Productions, and he came in and took over the show and this was something he wanted to do. To do and we've kind of alluded to this part before. Yours truly is not young, and that seems to happen with our announcing staff. We seem to have these old announcers Well, and everybody knows we need to bring in new fans and we need to bring in new, younger fans. I can tell you for a fact that you and I are not the target audience of the people we want to bring in.

Speaker 2:

Of course They've already hooked you and they hooked me, so we're done.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we need to bring it yeah.

Speaker 2:

We need to bring in this younger generation. And I, you know, john Walters is outstanding and I can talk to John Walters all day long and I learn so much and when he's color commentating with me the last few years in Seattle and San Diego, I learn so much. We sat down and talked about it and somebody said Brad, you, brad, are technical enough, you're talking over the head of the casual fan. Now you bring in John and Brad. You're saying you're learning stuff from John Walters. The average fan is learning from you and if you're talking over their head, john's talking way over there. Well, I never really looked at it that way and I've talked to John about this. I was with John last night. We had dinner after the event, finally, and I've talked to him about it. And we joke about the youth booth of which John and I are not a part, and it's nothing against me, it's nothing against John, but there was a thought. We got to get somebody who appeals to this younger audience and the first comment to make back to that is he doesn't know a hydroplane from a semi truck True statement. But he understands motorsports. What you said he appeals to a younger audience and even if he's not talking very technical, the casual fan who comes in. He can talk to them almost on the same level, because they aren't terribly enamored or understanding of all the idiosyncrasies of the sport. I'm open to suggestions at any time and so I had concern about it, but I said, no, let's do it. He has a very large social media following. I don't, and so we've brought Tanner in and, first of all, he is a great guy. Yeah, he is a wonderful. You need to meet him. You need to meet Tanner Faust. He's very personable. He's a wonderful. You need to meet him. You need to meet Tanner Faust. He's very personable. He's very approachable. I've noticed that when we go places, there are people that know this guy. There are people that go. Is that Tanner Faust? And he gets approached by fans a lot Not fans of boat racing, fans of Tanner Faust. So I think it's there.

Speaker 2:

He's learning boat racing. I can tell you the last three days he had a blast. I told him he finally saw a boat race. I said this this is our sport Two boats side by side, three on a couple of occasions. This is what this sport is. He loved it. He got a ride in a vintage miss wahoo. Yeah, and he was, he was.

Speaker 2:

There was a little trepidation there because, admittedly, in tanner if you're hearing this, you said it, I didn't. He's a control freak and, oh, he's got to be the one holding the wheel. He told the story of being in a golf cart in the parade at Madison and he was nervous at three and a half miles an hour, and so he's a really good guy. He's very personable. He and I are.

Speaker 2:

Especially this weekend I think we really developed a banter and that was my big concern. I didn't know what I could throw to him during a call of a heat. He's my co-host, but he's kind of my color commentator too and I didn't know what I could throw at him. I'm getting me personally more comfortable with that, and I think he is too, and he's learning. And that's the one thing I really like about Tanner he's not coming in with this. I'm Tanner Faust. I don't need to learn about your sport because I know everything there is about motorsports. That is not who this guy is. He's studying. I get emails from him. He has one of my books and he's called me and sent me an email, I'll bet, with six or seven questions. It says in your book this. I don't understand that. What is that? And I explain it to him. So that tells me he wants to learn, yeah, and so he's studying, he's taking it serious and so, yeah, I like the guy, yeah, I like it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I saw there was a quick interview he had after his Wahoo ride, which was great because he was talking about the difference in technologies. Yeah, you know, it's like how did people race these back then With that pop shaft running right between your legs, right, yeah. But it's a good point though you made earlier, because I absolutely loved when you and john walters were talking and all the technical aspects of the motors and the gearbox and all these little corners of the boats, right, and to me as a diehard fan, I can't get enough of that. See, we can talk hours on end on that. But that casual fan, it's a foreign language.

Speaker 1:

Right, it is a foreign language, and I'm a middle school teacher and I have posters of boats in my rooms and I try to promote it to the, to the youth where I can, and the. The number of kids that know what a hydroplane is so small in my classroom, which is. It's so sad to know that now, but that's, I think it's what the sport needs, needs, needs a way to bridge that now. But that's, I think, what the sport needs. It needs a way to bridge that gap.

Speaker 2:

It does. And when you and I were young, every kid knew what a hydroplane was, especially in my generation, because there wasn't anything else. There wasn't a Russell Wilson or a Ken Griffey Jr or something like that or a Jack Sickman, all that stuff. We didn't have that. But we had Ron Musson and Rex Manchester and those bad guys out of Detroit like Cantrell and Shaneth. And I've told my kids even today. When Russell Wilson was in his heyday a number of years ago for the Seahawks I said you don't understand that. Ron Musson and Bill Muncy, they were every bit as big as Russell Wilson and DK Metcalf and all these big Gary Payton, any name you want to throw out in Seattle history, ken Griffey Jr there weren't any bigger than the hydro drivers. Go back and look at the Seattle Sportsman of the Year Award. I think Muncy won that three times.

Speaker 1:

It was that big but it was the only circus in town Just a while to think about. Well, unfortunately, that's all the time we have for this week, no-go-heads. Come back next week for part three and the conclusion of my interview with Brad Luce. Next week he'll talk more about his work and involvement with H1 Unlimited and give us some more insight of some behind-the-scenes activities that are going on right now with H1 Unlimited. Until then, check us out online. We're on Facebook and Instagram. Instagram, and don't forget our website, ruchetailtalkcom. And while you're on our website, don't forget to check out ruchetail talk, plus a premium subscription service for members that get access to a monthly raffle drawing, premium content on our website, early access to all new episodes and much more. But that's all I have for this week, so until next time. I hope to see you at the races.